A Discussion of Issues and News Related to Workers' Compensation and Personal Injury Claims in Alabama

Medical News

If you are injured on the job, it can be difficult to find medical information. Your injury may be serious. However, the insurance carrier may not provide the best treatment or the physician may not provide any information to you. This section is designed to collect and republish information related to a variety of medical issues important to those suffering a significant injury.

Workers’ compensation clients will often call and tell me the surgeon wants to do back or neck surgery. Yet, the surgeon often fails to explain to the injured patient exactly what procedure will be performed. The patient suffering from an injury can be left with questions concerning the meaning of terms used by the surgeon. Unexplained terms such as discectomy, fusion, and laminectomy, really don’t tell you much unless you already have some medical knowledge.

After years of representing clients in personal injury and workers’ compensation cases, I’ve long realized that being skilled in surgery does not necessarily make you skilled in talking with patients. Because of that, I have a huge respect for those surgeons who take a little extra time to answer questions from their patients about the procedures they want to perform.

I recently came across a short article that provides a basic description of the terms used for back and neck surgeries. The article also provides four basic health tips that everyone should consider when facing the need for surgery: